Two weeks ago, I received a shipment of blackworms. I had gotten them because I have two bumblebee gobies that refuse to eat flakes or pellets or anything freeze-dried. They will only eat frozen foods or live foods.

I’d gotten blackworms because I read that they were easy to culture. I had kept about half an ounce once to feed my betta, but I didn’t really try to breed them. They only lasted about a week before the betta ate them all. But since the betta would eat pellets, live foods were just tasty tasty treats.

So I ordered these blackworms to fees the gobies. Chris doesn’t like the idea of frozen bloodworms in the freezer. He finds them creepy.

So my shipment came in a big plastic bag. What I didn’t realize was how much the worms would stink. And I do mean like a train station public toilet stank. Everyone on the internet said that the worms don’t stink if they’re healthy.

Well, guess these weren’t. But since I had spent some money on them, I decided to try keeping them. I figured it might have something to do with where they were kept and what they were fed before it got to me. So I kept them in five separate containers. I bought a lot more worms than I would ever need. One container died. I have no idea why. But the rest of them were alive and fine. And continue to be fine.

As time went on, they started to stink less and less. Turns out, I was right. I don’t want to think about what they were kept in and what they were fed. I am hoping that once they fully purge themselves of whatever they were eating or living in, they will either smell earthy or not at all. My previous batch didn’t smell at all.

I have also started feeding them to the fish. Since the betta lives alone in the 10 gallon, some of the worms have survived being eaten.

They seem to live happily in the 10 gallon. But the result is that our betta, which we have named Agent Winstead, constantly has a full, big, fat, stomach. It’s always distended like he has gorged himself with goodies.

Then again, Agent Winstead was always a big fatty. He has a nice sized fat deposit on his tail should I forget to feed him for several weeks (which is not likely. I see him every day.)

I gotta stop feeding him for at least another few days until I’m sure his bowels are working properly. It’s a sad vision to see a constipated betta. They like to eyeball you and blame you for all the ills they’ve encountered.

P.S. Two buckets of the worms died yesterday for no apparant reason. I have whatever is left in the tanks along with one container (which I have left outside in case they kick the bucket too. I don’t need that smell in the house).

I suspect it has something to do with the water I used to clean the one’s in the culture bucket. But since it’s the same water I’ve been using to clean them out for the last two weeks, I can’t seem to figure out why they died. But I have to tell you that they stink to high heaven when they’re dead. So I won’t be getting any more. I’m going to try to grow daphnia again. That is, if I can figure out a way to grow green water. Yet another experiment for Ling.